McCain and Obama Visit Ground Zero

On the seventh anniversary of the attack on the World Trade Center, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, Cindy McCain and Republican presidential candidate John McCain depart after paying their respects at the site of the former twin towers, Sept. 11, 2008. (Shannon Stapleton/Reuters)

By Michael D. Shear and Jonathan Weisman
NEW YORK -- John McCain and Barack Obama walked side-by-side down the long ramp into Ground Zero Thursday, putting aside their increasingly testy campaign for a day to lay roses in the reflecting pool commemorating the terrorist attacks seven years ago.

The pair of adversaries were joined by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and McCain's wife, Cindy, for the brief, but solemn event.

McCain and Obama chatted with each other as they walked down the ramp, talked with workers, victims' family members and first responders, then stood silently.

It was a remarkable respite from an increasingly nasty presidential campaign. Both men had pledged to take a break from politics for a day, suspending all television commercials during the Sept. 11 commemorations.

Tonight, the two candidates will appear, one after the other, at a forum on public service sponsored by Time Magazine and Columbia University.

The service forum was set up by the group Service Nation, along with surviving families of Sept. 11 victims, Time and CNN. John Bridgeland, who helped expand federally funded volunteerism and service programs during President Bush's first term, said the group saw an opportunity with Obama and McCain, both of whom have talked about new service initiatives.

The event will mark something of a transition for the nation from marking the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks with solemn remembrances to using the date to look to the future, organizers said.

"We felt like we were in a unique moment in history," said Bridgeland, now chief executive of Civic Enterprises, a public policy firm in Washington that promotes service initiatives. "We have two candidates defining themselves around this notion of service, and there seems to
be an attitude in Congress to move the next step on this powerful notion."

On Sept. 12, service groups will undertake a full day of efforts to organize volunteers in New York, with an event at the Hilton kicked off by Mayor Michael Bloomberg, chaired by Caroline Kennedy and Alma Powell, and closed by California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

"9-11 has been a day of mourning and remembrance, but there's a sense among the families to move out of that and take the next step," said Bridgeland, who helped organize the two-day event.

Obama threw his flowers at ground zero, but McCain laid his carefully on the spot. What does this tell us about Obama, he is an angry, non caring individual who will do anything to get elected and then we will all be in deep trouble.

waterfrontproperty: you don't watch the news much do ya. Palin was with her son where she should have been saying good-bye to him and his group before leaving to Iraq.What a bunch of crab buckets. Got to pick on everyone. Maybe you should have gone to ground-zero and shown some respect. But much easier and cheeper to be on line and complain

You mean congress's illegal war. He is right it takes congress to go to war. You need to stop Blaming the president for every thing that go's wrong. Start yelling some at congress. They are just as much to blame.

it takes a act of congress to go to war.. put the blame where it should be. everyone in congress.no president has ever acted alone when it comes to war.You cab blame Bush all you want why not blame the people who gave Bush the information. Why not blame all the congress men and women who voted for it before they changed their minds after things started looking bad and other country's gave their two since. The president got duked just like everyone else. But its easier to Blame one person isn't it.

OK, it's sad and all. Where is our country compared to the day before 9/11? Have terrorists caused all this terrible decline in our nation and it's people? Nope, it's been a series of mistakes on many different levels. Let's forget about most of the 'glamor' that surrounds memorials and just try to do our jobs without mistake after mistake.

OK, it's sad and all. Where is our country compared to the day before 9/11? Have terrorists caused all this terrible decline in our nation and it's people? Nope, it's been a series of mistakes on many different levels. Let's forget about most of the 'glamor' that surrounds memorials and just try to do our jobs without mistake after mistake.

I wonder if any of those mourners gave any thought to the hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqis who died as a result of George W Bush's false blaming of Iraq for 9/11 and his illegal war?

Did any of those mourners give any thought to the Iraqi kids who lost parents for no good reason? I bet not.

It's disgusting to think that the USA has got away with this mass murder of people and the destruction of a nation on the basis of a pack of lies and a blatant grab for Iraqi oil. I don't think the Americans have seen the last of this.

maybe it will take a another attack from Al-Qaida for all you people to stop complaining about the war.It would be the second worst day for this country in a long time. But a war inside America seem to be the only time this country has acted united ever.You should all be ashamed

John McCain is a sissy! In the CNN videos about the lives of John MCCain and Barack Obama in an interview of McCain during his captivity by the North Vietnamese,in an interview by a French reporter we see McCain sniveling like a little sissy. Pledging his love for Carol, in tears, and praying, in tears, that one day he will see her again.
John McCain is a little man with a need to be a big man complex.

You know the difference with world war 11 and war today is back then America really didn't care what the world thought of them. But today it has to be done very careful not to piss someone off. As long as we fight wars to make everyone happy we will never win a war again. I thought what Mccain and Obama did today was good for the country.So what Palin wasn't there neither was Obamas wife from what i hear.I am sure they were both there in thought just like everyone else who couldn't make. Unless you were there you have no room to put someone else down for not being there.

9/11 Did not destroy America.
________________________________________

The deliberately propogandist, deceitful response that resulted in attacking and invading a country with no ties to 9/11 or Al-Qaida terrorism -- ruined America.
Economically 1st and paralysed the government in a wasteful ruinous 8 years.

How long did it take old OLD
Mc where is my Cain to walk 30 feet, I bet
2-hours the OLD SOB can't move.

If the button for the bombs needed to be pushed and it's on the other side of the room we would be dead before Old Man McLame
could crawl to push the button.

------------------------------------------

1-20-09,

I believe one reason McCain cannot walk well is because he had the snot beat out of him in a POW camp - several times.

He had the nuts (you appear to lack) and survived that experience, so I choose to give him a pass on his mobility issue and think that it is as petty to make fun of his inability to walk as it is to make fun of any handicapped person.

What exactly do you do for a living 1-20-09 - are there jobs for people whose only skill appears to be insulting the handicapped?

I pity you as I do all cowards.

By the way, I will vote for Obama and am sorrowful that I share anything with the likes of you.

OfficerMancuso
Since gay men having anal sex seems to be your big bug-a-boo.
Thanks to the abstinence only faith-based initiatives which LIED to kids saying condoms weren't reliable,and the FAILED in 85% of Senior High girls who pledged abstinence were 4 times more likely to have oral sex, and SIX times more likely to have anal sex. So next MASSIVE wave of AIDS deaths,(and it's very near because in 8 years Bush/Cheney only developed one AIDS drug,,,fuzeon. Now you'll be able to cremate sons and your daughters TOO.

I noticed that Michele Obama has no respect for a 1st lady position , if it requires respect for the USA.
It has always been aware that B.O. refuses to place his hand over his heart to pledge allegiance. I guess we should be happy we got him to wear a flag lapel pin.
B.O. didn't arrive with a rose, and flung the one he had been given to place,rather disrespectfully.
I noticed that Jon McCain knelt down and placed his flower with respect for those butchered in an act of war.
Cindy did the same in a Presidential first lady manner.
I wasn't granted a vote for Hillary, and will never vote Obama.
Can you believe an Arab guy with the name Hussein stood next to an all American war hero at ground zero today, both seeking the position of Commander in Chief?

myou folks might also recall ONLY LGBT Americans had to FIGHT for their fair share of the funds raised to comensate 911 surviving spouses...so we know exactly how loving and pulled together America was in the ashes and rubble...sypathy for everyone'''' but the queers

This one of the worst days in american history. How can you fight and fight and fight over issues of why it happened and the aftermath, leave that for tomorrow, today is a day to remember the men and women who had there lives taken from them, and a day to shoulder the grief there families have been feeling for seven years. It matters not who you are voting for in the election, all that matters is that we stand, united as one. One Country. Today is a day to remember to look back and think about all that happened on that day and to be thankful that we were not on those planes, or in those buildings. Seven years ago we as a Country lost our sense of safety, of security. I think Barrack and John setting aside there differences to mourn the deaths of that day is a beautiful thing and i am glad that we have two candidates that can cooperate and stand together and remember the day that we feel apart.

Anonymous, I don't think you'd have liked it if King George I had insisted on the right to enter every bedroom, and make sure that every male who intended to be the active partner in anal sex, wear a condom.

If people won't be responsible for their own actions, what you get is big government being responsible for the things citizens declined to be responsible for themselves.

And then the citizens complain about what the government didn't do for them.

I didn't ask you officer, and unless you had friends dying of AIDS while Bush 41 did NOTHING, I guess I wouldn't hate him to his bone marrow either. But his wife Babs after Katrina, ya gotta give me is the biggest hateful (McCain's word for Cindy again) on the planet.

Miss Rudy wouldn't help he might chipped a nail, and there is only one thing a drag queen hates worse than breaking a nail, it involves wiping your Santorum on her new dress, afterwards.
Cheney would have helped but he got 5 deferments instead.

Rudy Giuliani, Barack Obama, Dick Cheney and Jeremiah Wright are all my fellow countrymen. I have no doubt whatsoever that if those four men and I were trapped in a building that people from outside the USA had deliberately tried to destroy, each one of us would do everything we could to save each others' lives, and the lives of every other American in the building.

I heard (a noun, a verb, 911) Miss Rudy attended the memorial, in a smart black frock I suppose. He will have plenty of support to lean on his 3 wives.
Yeah, give us a ANOTHER lecture on FAMILY VALUES you bitter old saggy drag queen.

Don't you all have jobs and families to tend to? Why must every politics story on the web site create an opportunity for nasty, partisan blathering from both the Ds and the Rs. You are all far worse than either of the campaigns!

Osama bin Ladin would like to THANK Cheney/Bush for their TOTAL incompetatance of letting his live 7 years after they said BRING IT ON, and wanted DEAD or ALIVE.
The difference between Cheney/Bush and Osama....Osama will still have a job after Jan 20th 2009

Geez, can Obama do anything right by you guys?, how many times have you watched a scene in a movie when someone walks up to a pool, or the ocean or a grave and tosses a rose as a sign of respect for a lost one, in essence saying goodbye?

Do you really thing Obama has a disrespect for the lost ones of 9/11?

You are showing great disrespect for the fallen of the 9/11 attacks by trying to make this a political issue.

,Jake D
Unlike the troops who have NEVER been denied funding for ANYTHING ever, well except Rumsfeld sending them into harms way without body armor or Humvees with anti IED shielding, to an UNNECESSARY WAR Bush chose to drag America into, which had NOTHING to do with 911, or posed any threat to America.
McCain didn't even bother voting for VETERAN'S BENEFITS...so blame him as well.

to me September 11th is a day to remember not just the people who were killed senselessly due to violent actions, but to remember people who died and took a part of you with them.

walking up to the grave of a person you knew requires unnatural amounts of reverence and submission to the power of not only the dead but the memories we have.

any normal man requires support, mccain and his wife leaned on eachother, when they reached the remembering pool they bent down and gently set a rose in the pond.

obama came with no one, his wife yes honorably at home with her children, none the less a man who can stand unsupported against the power of such a place, is one who is indifferent to the pain that occurred. he walked up to the pool, apparently searching for someones hand to shake, and tossed the ross into the pool.

barack obama, actions speak louder than words, perhaps if you started wearing lipstick, we might not be able to criticize your actions either.

YOU SEE FOLKS I AM NOT TRYING TO GET YOU TO CHANGE YOUR VOTE.ALL I AM SAYING IS THAT IF YOU VOTED FOR BUSH EIGHT YEARS AGO.AND YOU ARE VOTING FOR JOHN MCCAIN IN THIS ELECTION YOU SHOULDN'T BE ALOUD TO VOTE.ITS OBVIOUS YOU NEED HELP.MY STAFF HAS SURVEYED 100 72 YEAR OLD FOLKS AND ASK THEM THIS QUESTION AT YOUR AGE WOULD YOU LIKE TO RUN FOR PRESIDENT AND THEIR ANSWER WAS YES.THEN THEY ASK ME WAIT A MINUTE WHAT WAS THAT QUESTION AGAIN.DO YOU THINK THEY WERE TO OLD TO UNDERSTAND THE QUESTION.

"Couldnt help noticing something about that picture on the front page though.When older man Sen McCain is bending down to place the flower the younger Sen Obama looks like is throwing it?"
Honor and respect v/s callousness and frivol

"- an Obama supporter who thanks Obama and McCain for their respect for the innocent victims of the crime committed in New York City seven years ago"

The "CRIME"?!?

With all due respect, Officer Mancuso, it was an act of war. And the fact that we have gone seven years without dropping bombs on every cave in Afghanistan is inexcusable.

Once the U.S. entered World War II, it took just under FOUR years to take down THREE bloody zealots and their forces. "The greatest generation" indeed - what made the "great" is that they all had the will and desire to defeat an obvious, unspeakable EVIL. They sacrificed, learned skills, kept vigilant. Today, we can't even lock up a suspected terrorist without whining about "torture." We call a military sneak attack a "crime."

We're a pathetic nation with no backbone, and we're doomed to lose this war because we keep electing officials with no backbone.

PostGlobal's Global Power Barometer measures how well the key powers of the world, and by extension their leaders, are exercising their power to achieve their own desired ends. It tells you clearly who's winning and losing on the world power stage. The GPB's "4-week View" makes it obvious how far the U.S. has fallen far behind Russia, China, Iran and even Israel and the Islamists in achieving its global goals.

As we've watched world reaction to the Bush administration over the years, the people and leaders of the world are not as much interested in "experience" per se as they are two critical human traits: 1) curiosity about the world, and, 2) a knowledge of the history and cultures of their nations. Governor Palin has neither and that's downright dangerous.

The Governor, who obtained her first passport less than two years ago, has traveled outside the U.S. only once, to visit Alaska National Guardsmen stationed in Germany and Kuwait. She claimed a visit to Ireland, but the Irish quickly pointed out that a refueling stop in which you don't leave the airport is not a "visit." In fact, she has never even visited Alaska's important next-door neighbor, Canada.

Consistent with a complete lack of curiosity about the world around her, Governor Palin has never had any formal education in history (of the U.S. or the world,) let alone any experience with global culture or politics that might serve as a substitute for formal education.

Beyond what this says to the people of the world (which is that a VP Palin simply wouldn't care), we've just experienced eight years of the costly errors of a President without any curiosity or understanding of how foreign lands will react to U.S. actions. Iraq is a prime example. Even a cursory knowledge of culture and the region would have suggested the outcome of an Iraq invasion (Bush 41's great knowledge and understanding of history and culture kept him out of Baghdad.)

In the current crisis with Russia, an understanding of Russian culture, history and 20th-century experience (and, of course, the right judgment to apply the lessons of that history) would have avoided creating the situation in which Russia had little choice but to draw the line at South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

The U.S. has a history as long as a blink of an eye in comparison to much of the rest of the world, so it may be understandable that we have little interest in world history. U.S. citizens are some of the least traveled among developed countries, so that may explain our lack of knowledge of other cultures. But in order just to protect ourselves and avoid mistakes that strengthen our enemies and weaken the U.S., we need leaders who are curious about the world, its history and its cultures. The nomination of Sarah Palin sends exactly the wrong message to the world and guarantees four more years of foreign policy and military mistakes in a world far more dangerous than it was eight years ago.
By Chuck McLean, Chuck McLean is director of the Denver Research Group, which produces PostGlobal's Global Power Barometer.

It was sad Hannity and Limbaugh chose today to POLITICIZE 911, and of course blamed the Left, including Obama for some bizarro reason.
Sean and Rush why don't you rag on Ann Coulter who said, "911 widows were enjoying their husband's DEATHS, and they would have been divorced any ways"...(John McCain has a term for Cindy) which describes Coulter to her short hairs!
I will NEVER forget or forgive that bloated dead Falwell, blaming gays feminists and the ACLU members for 911, those were some of the VERY PEOPLE the terrorists killed, like a lesbian firefighterin the WTC, and a gay fire dept chaplin, and a gay man who helped bring down Flight 93...saving either the Congress or White House. I hope he's rotating on a spit in a napalm-fueled white hot corner of HELL.

OK FOR ALL YOU ANIMALS OUT THERE HEAR IS THE TEST IF YOU ARE VOTING FOR MCCAIN.ASK YOURSELF AM I VOTING FOR MCCAIN BECAUSE SARAH IS WHITE.THEN ASK YOURSELF THEN WHY AM I VOTING FOR HIM.NOW IF YOUR ANSWER IS BECAUSE YOU THINK HE WILL HELP CHANGE THIS COUNTRY.MY ADVICE TO YOU IS YOU NEED TO CONSULT WITH YOUR DOCTOR FOR MORE SERIOUS REHAB.

Happy to see that both sides came together to remember America's fallen.Couldnt help noticing something about that picture on the front page though.When older man Sen McCain is bending down to place the flower when the younger Sen Obama looks like is throwing it?
Telling!

In recent weeks, John McCain and the Republican Party have blatantly and without any shame adopted the Democratic campaign theme of “change”. It should be evident to an objective observer that Bush 43 and now McCain and Pailin are mere puppets to the true Republican national party leaders who control their strings. Cheney is one of the few of that inner cabal that have been calling the shots since the Nixon administration. They are in fact a continuation of the Nixon and Ford presidencies with only a disruption during the Carter and Clinton years. Bush 41( Head of the RNC during Nixon, former head of the CIA,VP to Reagan, and president is probably the real leader of this political Cosa Nostra if not a equal partner of this power sharing musical chairs game. His right and left hands have been Dick Cheney(former Sec.of Defense of Bush 41, former White House Chief of staff for Ford) and the other is Donald Rumsfeld(former Sec. of Defense for Ford and Bush 43,former special envoy to the Middle East during Reagan). Another member of this group, more likely a captain if not a full blown boss himself is James Baker (former C.O.S of Reagan, former Under Sec. of Commerce for Ford, former C.O.S and Sec of State for Bush 41, former Sec. of Treasury for Reagan, former chief legal advisor to Bush 43). Another captain or free lance enforcer is Karl Rove a college drop out and campaign manager for both Bush 41 and 43, also for Phil Gram who is McCain’s economic advisor.
Lets look at McCain’s staff of change.
On July 2, 2008, Steve Schmidt was given "full operational control" of McCain's campaign. Steve Schmidt prior to this was a top aide to Dick Cheney and a protégé to Karl Rove. Another advisor is Charles R. Black worked for Ronald Reagan's two Presidential campaigns in 1976 and 1980 and he was a senior political adviser to the 1992 re-election campaign of George H.W. Bush. Another advisor is Randy Scheunemann. He was project director for the Project for the New American Century. A neo-conservative think tank founded by non other than Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and Bill Kristol and others in 1996. Other signatories to this group reads like a who’s who of the last 8 years of the republican administration.
These people have never cared about small town america or “values” All they care about is war profiteering. Many of the signatories have never served in the military. Cheney and Rove both dodged the draft. Look at the statement of principles by the PNAC. Rumsfeld was a good friend of Saddam Huessin in the 80’s Cheney didn’t want Nelson Mandela free. These are the real puppet masters, they throw out the talking points about the left of being elitist and not caring about middle america and these same guys other than Rove have advanced degrees and are worth no less than 10 million dollars. People who support them need to extricate their heads out of Limbaugh and Hannity’s asses and see what is really happening to them. McCain is not his own man he confuses stories of his real life with a book he read “The Gulag Archipelago", in which a fellow prisoner - not a guard - silently drew a cross in the dirt with a stick.” An ironic twist to all this is Eliot A. Cohen, a signatory to the PNAC "Statement of Principles", responded in The Washington Post: "There is no evidence that generals as a class make wiser national security policymakers than civilians. George C. Marshall, our greatest soldier statesman after George Washington, opposed shipping arms to Britain in 1940. His boss, Franklin D. Roosevelt, with nary a day in uniform, thought otherwise. Whose judgment looks better?"http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/uselection2008/johnmccain/2581086/John-McCain-accused-of-plagiarising-Wikipedia-for-speeches.html. Even if you don’t like Obama there is no-way a sane person can want this continued blatant fleecing of our Nation.
Thes are all verifiable facts and can be found just with a google search. AIPAC and PNAC are the military industrial complex.
Other than the ultra affluent, how can anyone support the Republican Party? When will small town America realize that they are being duped into supporting the ultra-affluent agenda? The talking points of the right are so hypocritical that it becomes laughable. The red meat of the right is the so called Main stream Media as if Limbaugh, Hannity, et al. are not part of it. They demean celebrity status, however they tout one of their greatest presidents(Reagan) was an actor. They say they are the party of patriotism, yet many of the upper echelon of the party have never served, i.e. Cheney, Rumsfeld, Baker, Reagan. They say that they care about "Main Street" USA but only bail out the Whales of Wall Street. Yet small town America eat this tripe every year. They don't care about religion unless it can be used to stir up the base, nor science or technology unless there is a buck to be made. Small town America takes pride on its freedom but yet don't realize that over time we are becoming less free, ie wire tapping and other forms of domestic surveillance. They demean people of intelligence because they know many people of small town America don't have degrees and use it at a fake issue and call people who spent time in academia as elitist when many on the right serve on university boards and have part-time professorships. They say they are against affirmitive action but yet celebrate mediocrity, Bush43 and McCain graduating at the bottom of their classes. Who both came from already well established families and had all the opportunities and connections to excel. Why does small town America believes this is the party for them? Christian conservatives seem to the be the first ones who want to go to war and bomb someone before any diplomacy is tried. Why can't small town America and Christian conservatives realize they are being used as pawns just as much the Islamic fundamentalist are. Islamic fundamentalist come from small town Middle East and given the same kind of talking points as the evangelicals. They want prayer in school, no choice available to women, and believe to the core that their ideas about worship and country are the best. Wake up small town America you are being duped.Talking about who is more patriotic, symbols, lipstick and wearing pins are nothing more than distractions to the real issue of how a few select group of people have held power almost continuously for over 30 years. Yes the left has their own political power groups but none have been so effective at pushing forward an agenda that is fundamentally bad for the U.S. and in a larger view the entire world. I stress again the now defunct PNAC and the AIPAC have been slowly pushing us closer to another World War. Bush41 and et al have been doing this and no one calls them on it. Every Republican administration has basically the same people recycled since Nixon. Just do a little research and you will see that these people are just pushing this agenda of some kind of Pax Americana and not taking into account that maybe other nations of the world might not like that and if not bomb them.Many people who support the Republican party, really need to read "1984" by George Orwell and see how we as nation have been inching closer to that type of society. People think this story is about a communist society, but it is more about how a society is kept in a constant state of fear in order for the ruling class to stay in control. Doublespeak, patriotism to the point of frenzy, censorship, erosion of civil liberties (not respecting the Constitution) is happening right in front of us. The consolidation of government (the executive branch has never been more powerful than ever, gridlocked legislature with only two parties for representation, a judiciary that just kowtows to the executive branch). No real independent journalism. Cameras placed on every street corner. This may sound like delusional conspiracy stuff, but I implore people to research for themselves to really see what is happening to them. People think this could never happen here in the U.S. but all this has already happening, slowly, incrementally all under the guise of "keeping America safe"

You must be young, in addition to other less pardonable attributes on display in your post.

Many Americans know that by the time you've learned to cook well and parse political debates wisely, your joints aren't as limber as they once were, and chuckle at rash, inexperienced knuckleheads who have not better standard than the "Gumby standard" for selecting presidents.

- an Obama supporter who thanks Obama and McCain for their respect for the innocent victims of the crime committed in New York City seven years ago

I would say the big deal is that September 11th is an excellent day to refocus on what really matters in this election. Chris Cilizza of The Fix has an excellent article about how McCain and Obama each view war the nation's security. It is a good read and points to one of the most important decisions for this election. Hopefully, today's event can shift the focus from petty squabbling and back onto the major issues that should determine the outcome of this election.